Hemorrhage from vascular injuries in the extremities, such as the arms and legs, can be difficult to treat by a single person. While the treatment of such injuries is challenging when they occur in civilian populations, treatment may be even more difficult in combat situations. Improvements in body armor have reduced mortality from combat injuries to the chest. However, the incidence of injuries to the extremities and the associated mortality rates remain high. Recent efforts have developed better tourniquets for treatment of these extremities wounds.
Controlling hemorrhage by application of direct manual pressure may be particularly challenging in cases where the injured person is alone. In fact, most current tourniquet devices are designed to be applied “one-handed.” Because of this, it can be difficult and very painful to achieve a tourniquet pressure that stops blood flow in the limb because of the narrow width of most tourniquet bands.